DJ guide

1. Get on the venue’s DJ list

   The venue owner adds you on their DJs tab, using your Second Life name and the on-air name you will go live as. You cannot log in until they do.

   If you are not on the list, the board tells you so when you try DJ login. Ask the owner to add the username it shows.

2. Get your login from the board

   1. Go to the venue and touch its CueSwitch board.
   2. Choose DJ login.
   3. The board gives you a one-time link in chat, and a pop-up that offers to open it. It works once and expires after 15 minutes.
   4. Open the link in your browser.
   5. Press Continue to your CueSwitch dashboard. You land on the DJ login page.

   The first time you do this at a venue, CueSwitch links your avatar to your DJ login. That link is what lets the tip jar pay you. If you DJ at more than one venue, the page shows one card per venue, each with its own login.

   There is no password for the dashboard. Touch the board again whenever you need a new link.

3. Read your login page

   WhereDJ login pageCard with your venue name

   The card for your venue shows You go live as your on-air name, then five values: Server, Port, Mount, Username and Password. Press Copy next to a value to copy it. The password stays hidden until you press Show.

   If you lose your password or think someone else has it, press Regenerate password. The old password stops working right away, so update your software.

   The card can also show a notice:

   • The owner has disabled your login. You cannot connect until the owner enables you on their DJs tab.
   • The venue's stream is switched off. The owner has not renewed. You can connect again once they pay.
   • Your login is not active yet. The venue's stream is still being set up. Check back in a few minutes. The Port shows being set up until then.

4. Enter the settings in your DJ software

   Use server type Icecast 2, format MP3, 128 to 320 kbps (320 is recommended; the station converts it to the venue's stream quality) and stereo. Then enter the server, port, mount, username and password from your login page.

   The table shows what each program calls those fields. Type the values from your login page, not the words in the table.

   Field names in each program

   Setting	BUTT	Mixxx	Traktor	VirtualDJ
   Server	Address	Host	Address	Server
   Port	Port	Port	Port	Port
   Mount	Icecast mountpoint	Mount	Mount point	Mount
   Username	Icecast user	Login	(none: use username:password)	Username
   Password	Password	Password	Password	Password
   Server type	Icecast	Icecast 2	Icecast 2	Icecast
   Format	MP3	MP3	MP3	MP3

   No username field?

   If your software has no separate username field, type username:password (joined with a colon) into its password field. Traktor works this way.

   Shoutcast mode (older apps)

   Server stream.cueswitch.com, port = your Port + 1, password = your username and password joined by a colon (username:password). Some apps (for example Winamp's DSP) add the 1 themselves: then enter your Port as shown. Icecast mode is simpler if your app has it.

5. Go live

   1. In your software, connect to the server or start broadcasting.
   2. Give it a moment. The board then shows LIVE with your on-air name, and the track you are playing. It can take up to half a minute to update.
   3. When you stop, disconnect in your software. AutoDJ takes over again.

   Only one DJ can be live at a time. When you connect, AutoDJ steps aside. Listeners who turned on alerts at the board get an IM when you go live, and the venue may also post to Discord.

   While you are on deck, listeners can send you track requests from the board menu. They reach you as an IM from the board, one per listener per minute.

6. Not streaming? Touch “I’m on”

   I'm on tells the venue that you are the DJ on deck when you are not connected to the CueSwitch stream. Use it when you are DJing but not streaming through your CueSwitch login.

   What it does:

   • The board and the tip jar show you as on deck: On deck: and your on-air name.
   • The tip jar pays you as the DJ on deck, as when you are live.
   • Track requests from the board menu reach you as IMs.

   It does not start the stream and it does not change the music.

   1. Touch the venue's board.
   2. Choose I'm on.
   3. The board tells you in chat that you are on deck. The board text can take up to half a minute to change.

   Rules

   • You must be on the venue's DJ list, and the board must know your avatar. Use DJ login on the board once first.
   • It does not work while a DJ is live on the stream: the board already shows them. A DJ who goes live on the stream takes over from you.
   • It ends by itself when your set in the schedule ends. If your set starts within the next 15 minutes, that set counts. With no set, it ends after 3 hours.
   • Touching it again changes nothing. Wait 10 seconds between touches.
   • Another DJ on the list can take over by touching I'm on too. Your turn then ends.
   • The owner can take you off deck by disabling you on the DJs tab.

7. Your sets and “only during slots”

   Your upcoming sets for the next 14 days are listed on your login page, in Second Life Time (SLT, US Pacific). The owner adds and changes them on the Schedule tab.

   The owner can switch on Only let DJs connect during their slots. When it is on:

   • Your login works during sets assigned to you, starting 10 minutes before the set begins.
   • If you are still on air when your set ends, you are disconnected within a minute.
   • Outside your sets, the server refuses your login.

   When it is off, you can connect at any time, as long as you are on the list and not disabled.

8. Tips to you

   When someone pays the venue's tip jar while you are on deck (live on the stream, or after you touched I'm on), the jar sends your share straight to your avatar in L$. The owner decides who gets tips: the DJ keeps every tip, the club keeps every tip, or a split. In a split your share is the tip times the owner's DJ percentage, rounded down to a whole L$. Example: a L$100 tip at 50% sends you L$50. If the owner allows it, tippers can pick at the jar.

   You are not paid a share when no DJ is on deck, or when the owner is the one on deck. For the jar to pay you:

   • Your avatar must be linked. This happens the first time you use DJ login on the board.
   • The owner must have granted the jar its debit permission.

   The owner sets this on their Tips & Discord tab. Ask them how they set it.

9. If you cannot connect

   • Copy the values from your login page instead of typing them.
   • Check the format: Icecast 2, MP3, 128 to 320 kbps.
   • Check whether you are inside your set time, if the owner limits logins to sets.
   • Look for a notice on your login card: disabled, stream switched off or not active yet.

   The full checklist is in Why can't my DJ connect?

10. Your own stream (DJ Live / DJ Radio)

    DJ Live and DJ Radio are personal streams for one DJ or singer. You buy one at the Performer Terminal in the CueSwitch store (see DJ streams for prices and how to buy). You are the owner of the stream and its only streamer, so there is one streamer login and it is yours. There is no DJ list to be put on.

    The stream is 320 kbps and takes up to 100 listeners at once.

    • DJ Live is live only. You cannot upload music, and a placeholder plays when you are off air.
    • DJ Radio is DJ Live plus uploads and AutoDJ. Every upload goes into one AutoDJ list that plays shuffled when nobody is live. You can store up to 5 GB of music.

    Get your login

    1. Pay at the Performer Terminal. It sends you an IM with a one-time link to your web account at cueswitch.com. Open it and press Continue to your CueSwitch dashboard.
    2. Later, touch a CueSwitch Terminal in the CueSwitch store and choose Owner login, or IM Cara Rewell for a link. You get a one-time link. It works once and expires after 15 minutes.
    3. Your streaming login is on the DJ login page (cueswitch.com/dj): Server, Port, Mount, Username and Password, like the card described above. Enter them in your software the same way.

    There is no password for the web account. Lost your streaming password? Press Regenerate password on the card.

    What you get, and the DJ Tip Jar

    Your plan is your stream and your web account. The DJ Tip Jar is no longer included with DJ Live or DJ Radio. Nothing arrives in your inventory when you pay.

    If you already got the performer kit, you keep it. The Performer Courier in the CueSwitch store sends it to your inventory again when you ask (Resend kit on the Setup tab): the CueSwitch DJ Tip Jar, the Performer Guide and the DJ Quick Start. CueSwitch no longer gives the Stage Link. Every tip paid into that jar goes to you. The jar has no DJ, Club or Split buttons. Its label reads TIP THE DJ and its hover text names you. It takes tips only while you are live: touch it (right-click > Touch) and choose Go live. Its owner menu also has Dashboard and DJ login, which send you a one-time link.

    Go live at a club

    This part is for DJs who already have the performer kit. CueSwitch no longer gives the CueSwitch Stage Link. Clubs use the CueSwitch Stream Setter for this now: it switches the parcel music, and it is a club device sold separately at the CueSwitch shop. A Stage Link that is already rezzed keeps working, and the steps below are for a parcel that has one. It lets your jar switch that parcel's music to your stream. On group-owned land it must be deeded to the land's group (Edit > General > tick Share with group, then Deed). Its hover text says what it needs. The club owner chooses who may play: Open (any CueSwitch DJ), Approved only, or Off.

    1. Rez your DJ Tip Jar on the club's parcel (not worn: a jar you wear can't go live).
    2. Touch it and choose Go live. Tips open and the Stage Link plays your stream. The jar tells you if there is no Stage Link, if it is Off, plays approved DJs only or is not deeded, or if another Stage Link there is playing a DJ. Tips open either way.
    3. Connect your streaming software and play.
    4. When you finish, touch the jar and choose End set. The club's own music comes back, tips close, and you get an IM with your set length, tips and L$.

    A set also ends by itself when you have left the parcel for 5 minutes, when the jar is moved off the parcel, after 4 hours, when your DJ Live stream has been off air for 10 minutes, when the club owner puts other music on the parcel, or when another DJ goes live on the same Stage Link. Only the jar where you pressed Go live takes tips.

    Give a club your stream

    A club plays your stream through the music URL of its parcel. Copy your stream address from your DJ login page and give it to the club manager. The manager pastes it into About Land > Sound > Music URL on the club's parcel. If you have a DJ Tip Jar, you can also touch it and choose Stream URL: the address comes to you by IM, and anyone can touch the jar and choose it, so a club manager can get it from the jar at the club.

    Renewing and upgrading

    • Pay again at the Performer Terminal to add time. The new weeks are added to the time you have left.
    • To go from DJ Live to DJ Radio, pay a DJ Radio price at any time. The time you have left on DJ Live is converted by its L$ value, so it becomes half as many days of DJ Radio, and the DJ Radio weeks you buy are added.
    • A DJ Live payment on a DJ Radio stream is refused and refunded.

    If your time runs out

    A 3-day grace period starts, then the stream is suspended. A DJ Live or DJ Radio stream and its data are kept for 7 days after that, then deleted. Pay before then and the stream comes back.

11. Singers: streaming your voice

    DJ Live is the same product for singers. You buy it and get your login the same way (see Your own stream). What changes is the audio you send: your microphone, with or without a backing track. Use BUTT or Mixxx.

    1. Put your microphone into the software

    • BUTT: in its settings, open the audio section and choose your microphone (or your audio interface) as the audio device. BUTT then sends what that device hears.
    • Mixxx: in Preferences, open Sound Hardware and, on the Input tab, assign your microphone to Microphone 1. Then switch the microphone on in Mixxx's microphone section. Mixxx broadcasts its main mix, so your voice goes out with whatever else you play.

    Enter your Server, Port, Mount, Username and Password as described in “Enter the settings in your DJ software” above. The settings are the same for singers.

    2. Voice plus a backing track

    • In Mixxx this is built in: load the backing track on a deck, keep your microphone on, and use the mixer to set the levels. Both go out in the broadcast.
    • In BUTT, which sends one audio device, mix the two outside it. Use a virtual audio cable: play the backing track and your voice (from your DAW, your audio interface's mixer or your operating system's mixer) into the cable, then choose the cable as BUTT's audio device.

    Keep your voice a little louder than the track, and watch the meter in your software so the mix does not clip.

    3. Mono or stereo

    • A single microphone is mono. Sending it into a stereo stream is fine: it plays the same in both ears.
    • With a stereo backing track, keep the software on stereo so the track is not squeezed into mono.
    • Voice only? Mono is fine too, if your software has a mono setting. Stereo works for everything, so use it if you are unsure.

    4. Test before a gig

    1. Connect in your software, as in “Go live” above.
    2. Open your stream address (from your web account; it starts with http://, not https://, and ends in /radio.mp3) in a player, or set it as your parcel music in Second Life (About Land > Sound > Music URL), and listen.
    3. Wear headphones while you test, so your microphone does not pick up the stream.
    4. Check your voice level, the backing track level and that nothing drops out. If you hear the placeholder (or AutoDJ, on DJ Radio) instead of yourself, you are not connected yet.

    If you cannot connect, see If you cannot connect.

Still stuck? Contact support: Cara Rewell in Second Life (IM her; she is our AI support assistant, and the owner follows up on anything she cannot solve)